Dances with Raccoons
by innocent passerby
Summary: GaaLee. There is a celebration after the Kazekage's return. Possible spoilers for ch. 252, also could be AU cause it takes place after manga ch. 254 Cause that's all that's out right now


Dancing. Of course Gaara knew what dancing was. He had seen it done a few times as he grew up, at least from a distance. Even though he knew what it was, it didn't mean that he knew why people did it. That's why after he'd been rescued by Teams Gai and Kakashi, he did not participate in the dancing part of the celebration.

Instead, Gaara looked on from his seat against the wall. Gaara watched as people swung around in circles and laughed together. It really was a wonder to him how people could laugh and be happy in such a meaningless exchange.

Gaara wouldn't have thrown such an exstravagent party, and no one in Suma Gakure would have bothered either. (Though some of them would have celebrated privately, though none of them would have admitted it and Gaara wouldn't have believed them if they did.) It was no surprise to Gaara when he found out that the party responsible for the party were the visiting leaf nins and his two foolish siblings.

"Do you plan on being a wallflower all night at your own celebrations?" Lee's voice cut through Gaara's moping like a hot knife through butter. The only response from the cold sand ninja was the slight shift of turquois eyes towards Lee's direction.

Lee didn't seem to notice the lack of response. Lee just gave Gaara one of his trademark grins and held one hand out towards the solitary sand ninja.

Gaara looked at Lee's hand indifferently. The bandages on Lee's hands, even during an occasion as formal as this, seemed strangely appropriate. Gaara raised his eyes once again to look at Lee.

"Come on! The party won't last all night, and you haven't been on the dance floor once!" Without farther warning, the thick-browed ninja snagged up Gaara's hand and pulled him towards said dance floor.

Gaara's eyes widened slightly when he was tigged out of his chair. Gaara was not only a little surprised that Shukaku didn't react to the hyper ninja, but also that someone had actually asked him to go make a fool of himself with everyone else.

When Lee found a relatively empty part of the dance floor, he stopped and grinned at Gaara again. "Don't worry if you don't know how, no one else here really does either." Lee proceeded to start moving to the music for about thirty seconds before coming to a stop. "Why aren't you dancing?"

"I don't dance..." Gaara had his arms crossed and he was watching the couple next to him twisting and twirling to the music. His expression was unimpressed at best.

"Sure you do, everybody dances. Just watch me and do what I do!" Lee started to dance once more. Gaara watched, but he didn't immitate.

Lee stopped again and pondered on a way to get Gaata dancing. As he was thinking, the music faded out and the voice of the DJ was heard throughout the assembly.

"This is DJ Rokudaime. It's time for all you lovebirds to get out on the floor and do a little dirty dancing! If you don't know how, all you gatta do is move your bodies together and make sure you get a good rub against their" suddenly there was a loud mechanical whistle and the sound of a scuffle in the direction of the DJ's table.

"Sorry about that, everyone, Naruto just forgot that this was supposed to stay PG," the new voice was feminine and those who knew her also knew that it was the voice of Haruno Sakura. "What he meant to say was that it's time for the slow dancing." The mic cut off and the soft melody of the prelude to the first love song started.

Gaara was both releaved and a little disappointed by the change of events. He turned around wordlessly and started to walk back to his seat at the wall. Gaara was stopped by a firm grip around his wrist.

"Where do you think you're going?" Lee inquired, then pulled Gaara a little closer.

"These dances are for couples..." Gaara stated the obvious as Lee positioned himself as the lead for the dance.

"It doesn't matter. My goal was to get you to dance, and this way all you have to do is follow my lead!" Lee exclaimed a little too loudly for Gaara's comfort. "Now, just put your arms around my neck and move with the music."

At this point, Gaara was particularly thankful for his sand armor, because that was the only thing that was keeping his blush hidden. Gaara gave in after many moments of hesitation and he lifted his arms and slowly slid them over Lee's shoulders.

At first, Gaara had trouble following Lee's steps and Gaara stepped on Lee's feet a couple times. At one point Gaara nearly tripped, only to be caught by Lee and his his lightning reflexes. After a while, Gaara was finally getting the hang of it.

"You caught on really fast. A real natural." Lee told him cheerfully, continuing to move with the lengthy remix of love songs. Lee's eyes were watching Gaara, ignoring the others in the room and how they were being looked at.

Gaara gave Lee a quick glance to let him know that he'd been heard, then he looked over at a couple dancing near them. Gaara was mildly surprised to see that the couple was his brother and Sakura. Sakura must have come back out from behind the DJ's booth after talking to Naruto. Gaara watched how the couple moved so fluidly together. Sakura had her head resting on Kankuro's shoulder and her arms were over Kankuro's neck so Gaara figured that she was in the same position as him. Kankuro was watching Sakura, just like Lee was watching him too...

Gaara glanced up at Lee again, then at the other couple, then he closed his eyes and leaned his head on Lee's shoulder. Gaara figured that this must be the reason that Kankuro and Sakura were dancing so well, because it was the only difference he could tell.

It seemed too soon that the music stopped playing. Gaara was just getting used to the idea of dancing too. Gaara waited until Lee stopped before he lifted his head and looked up at his partner again. Lee's cheeks were pink and Gaara wondered why. Gaara lifted one of his hands and put it on Lee's cheek, "Your face is red."

Lee's face just seemed to redden more when Gaara said something about it. Lee smiled, it wasn't as exadurated as his normal grins, but it was a nice smile and it was sincere. "I just didn't expect you to get so into the dance, but I'm glad that you did!"

Gaara lowered both arms and crossed them over his chest again. Gaara looked over towards the DJ and noticed that Naruto seemed to be putting all his things away. It was too bad, because Gaara realized that he liked dancing. Gaara turned around and started walking towards the exit so he could get out of the dance room before everyone stampeded the door.

Lee caught Gaara by the shoulder and walked with him. "We should practice dancing together again." Lee was smiling down at Gaara still.

Gaara nodded his head and he didn't push Lee's hand off his shoulder. Lee took this as a 'yes'.


End file.
